'Indescribably difficult': As peace talks set to resume, Israel divided over release of Palestinian prisoners

Hours before Israeli and Palestinian envoys were set to resume peace talks for the first time in years, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry urged negotiators to reach “reasonable compromises on tough, complicated, emotional and symbolic issues”.

But with negotiators set to sit down together on Monday night and Tuesday, Israeli society was divided over a government decision to release 104 Palestinian prisoners as part of the pre-condition for the talks.

“These men are terrible murderers — how can they be let go?” asked Mika Bromberg as she stood outside the Israeli prime minister’s office at the weekend holding a black-and-white poster of Avraham Bromberg, her brother-in-law. Mr. Bromberg, an Israeli soldier, was killed while hitchhiking in 1981. The attackers shot him, stole his gun and pushed him out of a car.

“This is our last struggle for those killed. This morning my husband was so upset he collapsed,” said Ms. Bromberg.

Her son, Avi, named after his uncle, said, “The state of Israel is betraying the people of Israel. This will lessen the motivation of soldiers who capture these terrorists and then they see the political establishment release these terrorists.”

Haaretz newspaper said the released prisoners were responsible for the deaths of 55 civilians and 15 soldiers.

Schoolteacher Rachel Weiss, 26, and her three children, aged three, two and nine months, were killed when the bus they were travelling on was set ablaze by a Molotov cocktail. A stranger, David Delarosa, 19, died as he tried to save them. Their killer is due to be released.

Some of the other victims of the prisoners due to be released included: Prof. Menachem Stern, one of Israel’s leading historians, a lawyer, a pregnant woman, teachers, a French tourist as well as dozens of Palestinians suspected of collaborating with Israel. One prisoner was involved in the murder of 15 suspected Palestinian collaborators.

A poll commissioned by the mass circulation Yisrael Hayom newspaper last week found that 84% of Israelis oppose releasing prisoners in exchange for returning to the negotiating table. The prisoners are due to be freed in four stages – with the first coming as early as later this week when Israel’s Justice Minister Tzipi Livni is slated to meet Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat in Washington.

This is an indescribably difficult decision to make – it is painful for the bereaved families, it is painful for the entire nation and it is also painful for me

Ahead of a cabinet vote on the prisoner release, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appealed directly to the Israeli public to support the release.

“This is an indescribably difficult decision to make – it is painful for the bereaved families, it is painful for the entire nation and it is also painful for me,” Mr. Netanyahu wrote in an open letter released by the prime minister’s office.

Mr. Netanyahu said Israel had freed 10,000 Palestinian prisoners over the years as goodwill gestures and in efforts to restart peace talks.

“I believe it is of the utmost importance for the state of Israel to enter a diplomatic process,” he wrote. “This is important both to exhaust the possibilities of ending the conflict with the Palestinians and to establish Israel’s position in the complex international reality around us.”

Some Israelis, including some who have lost close relatives to terror, agreed.

“Look how much Israel was prepared to do to release just one soldier,” said Robi Damelin, whose son David was killed by a Palestinian sniper in 2002. “For them, these prisoners are soldiers. Why can’t we understand how important this is to them?”

Ms. Damelin, who immigrated to Israel from South Africa, is active in the Parents Circle, a group of Israelis and Palestinians who have lost loved ones to the conflict.

“If we don’t release these prisoners, nothing will ever happen and things will never move forward,” she said. “I saw in South Africa how people can change and I want it to happen here too.”

But writing for the Times of Israel, Dani Dayan, a businessman and chief foreign envoy of the pro-settler Yesha Council, said, “The very notion of Palestinian preconditions before even reaching the negotiating table, to enter a process in which they would be the potential beneficiaries – is utterly absurd. But when it involves the release of some of the most vicious terrorists of our time, it becomes obscene. And that obscenity has been made possible by none other then the U.S. Secretary of State.”

On Monday, Mr. Kerry appointed a former U.S. ambassador to Israel, Martin Indyk, to shepherd the peace talks.

“I know the negotiations are going to be tough, but I also know that the consequences of not trying could be worse,” Mr. Kerry said.